Kindest cut

As leader of the local post-punk outfit Paperscissor, Evan Crowley gets a little metaphorical when describing his band’s intense live shows, which have become a sight to behold.

“A painter might know what they want a painting to look like, but they have these happy accidents along the way. That’s how our performances are,” he said. “I kind of black out with nerves and excitement. I’ve fallen off many things. It’s kind of a guessing game of what will happen. Later on, I can’t even believe what I did.”

Crowley has many good memories, but his favorite came at this year’s performance at the Buffalo Lounge at South by Southwest.

“I realized I had run outside the venue, shaking a tambourine at the thousands of people out on the streets, screaming at them,” he said. “Getting to freak those strangers out was pretty interesting.”

Paperscissor was born last year when Crowley sought musicians to help him flesh out sketches of songs he had drafted after the breakup of another group. He found a guitarist in fellow ACM@UCO student Cameron Mintz, then former bandmate Josiah Tullis on bass, childhood friend Clayton Stroup on drums and Tullis’ nephew Caleb as an additional guitarist.

The five bring an array of influences to the table, including Van Halen, Everclear, Smashing Pumpkins and Tokyo Police Club.

“We’re a louder rock ’n’ roll band, but there’s an indie tinge to it,” Crowley said. “A lot of bands are starting to favor that more stripped-down, folk sound, but we are heading in the opposite direction.”

Paperscissor’s first recorded material arrives Friday with Dream Cure Magic Attack — listenable below and released as a limited run of 100 hand-illustrated copies — which Crowley said is a good approximation of those raucous shows.

“Our EP was recorded 100 percent live, just to capture as much energy as we could,” he said. “We didn’t put any effort into perfecting things, so it has this punk-rock attitude about it. We play the songs as we feel at the time.”

As it prepares another release, Paperscissor looks to find its place in the Oklahoma music scene.

“We’re only a year old. I don’t even know that we’ve found our niche,” Crowley said. “We are just making the steps in that direction.”